Transistor IR Images

In the top picture at the right, the transistors are operating below normal operating power conditions. The lowest temperature is black, while the ambient temperature is dark blue. The four yellow colored rectangular areas are the emitter edges of the transistor array, which are getting hot. There is also some significant heating of the feed traces, shown at the lower left.

The power level is increased in the lower right picture, but it is still below normal power operating conditions. The emitter edges are very hot (red), and the entire transistor is getting hot.

Further increases in power resulted in catastrophic destruction. With such high power levels, the metallization showed nearly complete melting and some evaporation.